7th May 2014 08:25
LONDON (Alliance News) - Experian PLC Wednesday reported an increase in full-year profit but said it faces a number of constraints on growth in the short-term, while it also appointed a new chief operating officer after Chris Callero decided to stand down at the company's annual general meeting in July.
Experian helps businesses to manage credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers, and automate decision making, while providing credit checks for individuals. It said pretax profit from continuing operations increased to USD1.05 billion in the year ended March 31, up from USD434.0 million a year earlier.
Revenue increased to USD4.84 billion from USD4.73 billion, driven by good revenue growth in credit services, decision analytics, and consumer services, it said. Experian, which has been placing emphasis on its fraud and identity management areas, said operating expenses rose to USD3.75 billion from USD3.67 billion.
"In the short term, we face a number of one-off headwinds, most notably a subdued trading environment in Brazil over the World Cup and the revenue impact of the changes we are driving in North American Consumer Services, which together will constrain growth in the first half," Don Robert, chief executive, said in a statement.
"We expect a return to more normal levels of organic revenue growth as the second half of the year progresses. We expect at least to maintain margins for the year, to deliver growth in earnings per share and to exceed 90% cash flow conversion," Robert added.
Benchmark pretax profit - which strips out amortisation and impairment of acquisition intangibles, impairment of goodwill, acquisition expenses, and a number of other items, including exceptionals - increased to USD1.23 billion from USD1.19 billion. Experian booked a USD54.0 million exceptional item owing to restructuring costs following a strategic review of its cost base. In addition, there was no repeat of the prior year's USD558.0 million exceptional charge related to its 2012 acquisition of Serasa SA, a Brazilian credit bureau.
Experian appointed Kerry Williams as Callero's successor. Williams joined Experian North America in 2003 and was subsequently promoted to lead its credit services operations globally. Last year Williams was appointed as president of the Latin America region and most recently assumed the post of deputy COO for Experian as a whole.
Experian increased its full-year dividend by 8% to 37.50 US cents per share.
Experian shares were Wednesday quoted at 1,073.00 pence, down 5.4%.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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